Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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INTRODUCTION
Higher education plays an essential role in society by creating new knowledge,
transmitting it to students and fostering innovation. Quality teaching in higher education
matters for student learning outcomes. But fostering quality teaching needs higher education
institutions to ensure that the education they offer meets the expectations of students and the
requirements of employers, both today and for the future (Hnard and Roseveare 2012).
In the last two decades, a great deal of attention has been directed towards developing
research in teacher education all over the world. Teacher education is clearly an essential
element for the improvement of education by producing highly qualified teachers. Many
countries identify the production of high quality teachers" as the goal and focus of their
teacher education programs.
A primary goal of all teacher educators is to provide pre-service teachers with
meaningful professional development opportunities that will help them succeed in making
the transition into their own classrooms (Diana, T. J. 2013). In most of the developed
countries, teacher education has moved from training teachers to transfer knowledge and
preparing them to practice a new role of producing knowledge (Stewart, 2011). In other
words, in the process of becoming and being a teacher, doing a teacher research not only
promote reflection about personal performance in the classroom, but also seem to stimulate a
valued process of self-assessment, in challenging future teachers to identify their personal
strengths and weaknesses. Thus, in order to help teachers practice this advanced role, teacher
education should equip teachers with self-evaluation and problem-solving skills that are
based on research-oriented education.
Research in education is necessary in order to provide a basis for educational
planning. It is one of the main fields that should be embedded in higher education curriculum
(Niemi & Jakku-Sihvonen, 2006). With regard to this, research-based education has lately
received increasing interest both among researchers in higher education and in public
discussion. Through these experiences, teachers develop the requisite knowledge and skills to
become effective classroom leaders capable of implementing the national reform agenda.
In the past ten years, Japan has witnessed many problems in schools. Many of these
problems were attributed to a lack of competence among teachers (Hosoya and Talib, 2011)
and, as a result, national advisory groups made the improvement of the teacher training the
main theme for educational reform in Japan. This reform has made teacher education a
national concern. As a result, research on teacher education has become one of the most
important fields in education in Japan. Although many teacher preparation programs in Japan
have improved in recent years, the literature suggests the need for more substantive
improvements. In my opinion, a first step in the improvement process would be to record the
perceptions of people engaged actively in teacher education (i.e. faculty members, deans,
students, teachers, policy makers etc.). In this respect, the research project presented in this
paper attempts to discuss the research policies, strategies and practices in graduate schools of
teacher education in the Japanese context. Field visits were conducted during my stay in
Japan to identify whether Japanese teachers are equipped with the conceptual understanding
and methodological skills to conduct action research in education.
The content of this paper is organized around a number of issues that concern
policymakers, educators, and researchers. These include the pedagogical approaches used in
teacher education and the contributions of research in developing high quality teaching. It
discusses the background of higher education reform in Japan to provide a deep insight into
the state of research-based approaches in teacher education, in particular. In addition, the
Data Analysis
The quantitative data obtained from survey-questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS
software to generate descriptive statistics (frequencies, means, and standard deviations).
Additionally, the qualitative data gathered through interviews was analyzed using a content
analysis approach, which involved coding and categorizing the data to look for dominant
themes, and counting frequencies of occurrence (of ideas, themes, and words).
Need and Importance
Nowadays, in many countries, there is great interest in promoting action research in
the teacher education curriculum (Burns, 2010). Action research is a problem-solving and
self-evaluation tool, which can help teachers to improve the quality of their teaching skills
and practice.
In teacher education, action research methodology offers a systematic approach to
introducing innovations in teaching and learning. It seeks to do this by putting the teacher in
the dual role of producer of educational theory, and user of that theory. This is both a way of
producing knowledge about higher-education teaching and learning, and a powerful way of
improving teaching and learning practice (Burns, 2010). No separation needs to be made
between the design and delivery of teaching, and the process of researching these activities,
thereby, bringing theory and practice closer together. In this research methodology, teachers
conduct research, create a study, collect data and analyze the results to improve the quality of
teaching and student achievement in the schools where they work. In this respect, action
research can provide opportunities for reflection, improvement, and transformation of
teaching.
It is common knowledge that teachers face many problems while teaching, such as
problems relating to the school program, the subject specialism, the class environment, the
teaching strategies, and students achievement. Teachers, interestingly, can conduct their own
research on different instructional topics. On the individual level, teachers typically
formulate a research question or topic based on the day-to-day challenges of their classroom.
This may focus on grade level curriculum instructional materials, teaching practices,
assessment or learning styles. Conducting action research can greatly impact on a teacher's
ability to effectively implement instruction. Topics that may be considered by teachers in the
individual level are: the student's success, classroom behaviors or even curricular practices
and lesson planning. At the collaborative level, teachers interested in working with other
educators to conduct action research may consider themes that may encompass broader
issues that affect several teachers. Some action research topics may include school-wide
research efforts (Burns, 2010). Instead of simply relying on an individual teacher or a few
teachers grouped together, this type of action research looks at issues that relate to the school
as a whole. Specific topics or areas of interest may be organizational structure, testing
practices, grading issues, parental involvement or curricular integration.
Based on the above, I believe that teachers should be equipped with the skills and the
methodological practice of action research for two reasons: First, by conducting action
research, teachers can improve their teaching practices, solve their problems and evaluate
their teaching performance. Second, teacher-researchers can develop their students research
skills and practices, and should be better able to evaluate their students research projects.
Hence, action research is a problem-solving and self-evaluation tool that can be widely
applied in the educational field to help to improve the teaching quality and practices.
According to this view, teachers, as action researchers, are critical in the sense that they not
REFLECTIONS
This section reflects on the insights that I have gained about the use and the practice
of action research in the teacher education program in Japan and on the conceptions and
perceptions of the students, professors, school teachers, and policy makers.
First, for research purposes, accessing existing information on the school of teacher
education is difficult. There is no systematic information service in Japanese higher
education institutions, which collects, classifies and facilitates the organized use of
educational information. In order to create a common understanding linking educational
research, educational policy-making and educational practice, there is a need for computer
networks to establish a system covering all higher-education institutions and the entire
country. With future needs in mind, Japan must also develop a multi-media oriented
educational information database to strengthen research networks linking Japan and other
countries in general and linking Japanese higher-education institutions to the databases of
research centers, in particular. Accordingly, both local and foreign researchers could better
understand the present situation concerning educational issues in Japan and other countries.
This issue was highlighted by the university professors when they said that educational
information and research databases were needed to promote research education in highereducation institutions.
Second, one of the major obstacles hindering the promotion of action research in
teacher education in Japan is the lack of a linkage between educational policy and research.
In the Final Report of the international meeting on educational reform and educational
Research (1995) NIER stated that educational research in Japan is rather poor when
grappling with real teaching problems. It was, also, reported that when urgent research issues
emerge as a result of social changes, the capacity to provide an immediate response is, at
times, very limited. Even where there is a linkage between educational research and
educational policy, it is often the case that the needs of practitioners are not adequately
reflected. In this respect, there is a need to think about devising a system whereby the voices
of practicing teachers can be heard at the research and policymaking levels. Thus, this system
will allow a kind of quick response and will help select research themes that anticipate the
kind of issues that are likely to arise in the future.
Third, while documenting and critically evaluating the literature, I noted that the
development of the Japanese educational system has influenced the development of other
educational systems not only in the Western World but also in other parts of the world. Since
the development of the modern, post-War Japanese education system was, and still is to some
extent, heavily influenced by the American educational system, I felt that it would be
beneficial that my research would be based on action research (a conceptual concept that
evolved in the USA and in the wider Western world). However, interestingly, despite the
feeling that there is a need to start a debate about action research in Japan, my study reveals
that there is very little literature about research-based education, particularly, action research
in teacher education in this part of the world.
Fourth, throughout this work, I have been dealing with two very different cultures.
Certain terms and ideas in both languages cannot be directly translated into the other. For
instance, the concepts underlying the English term action research are not part of the
tradition of Japanese culture. This term is relatively new to Japan and has been introduced
relatively recently, along with other Western concepts and ideas. This may have given rise to
uncertainty as to the exact meanings of some concepts that are culturally different and may
have resulted in loss of meaning in the process of translation. In Japan, using the English
Language caused some problems and uneasiness, which always needed to be translated and